Dutch Manufacturing Sector Contracts At Fastest Pace Since 2009

(RTTNews) - The Dutch manufacturing sector contracted at the fastest pace in nearly eleven years in April, amid the coronavirus, or covid-19, pandemic, survey results from IHS Markit showed on Monday.

The NEVI manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index, or PMI, fell to 41.3 in April from 50.5 in March. Any reading below 50 indicates contraction in the sector. This was the lowest recorded since May 2009.

Output declined at the quickest rate in more than twenty years of survey and new orders fell further in April.

Incoming new business deteriorated at the quickest rate since the survey began in early-2000. New export orders fell for the second straight month and at the quickest pace on record.

Workforce numbers fell in April with the rate of shedding the sharpest since July 2009. Backlogs of work fell at the quickest pace since April 2012.

Input costs fell for the first time in five months in April, while average selling prices remained broadly stable.

Firms' expectation regards to output for the 12-month collapsed to the lowest on record in April.

"It seems that Dutch manufacturers are bracing for an even bigger hit to industrial output. Unfortunately, the numbers suggest that the worst is yet to come." Albert Jan Swart, sector economist manufacturing at ABN AMRO, said.